the new year

fifty-six

F I F T Y - S I X :

ᴛʀɪɢɢᴇʀ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ: ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏꜰ ᴀʙᴜꜱᴇ

The five words the Harrison had let out in more an aggressive tone than he wanted made the girl jump back at the sudden outburst, she looked at him cautiously not sure if she should move or not "Is there a spider?" She asked slowly trying not to move if there was, she'd tried her best not to let spiders scare her or freak her out but that didn't work and every time she saw one in her bedroom she'd start talking in a different accent asking herself what should she do.

Harrison sighed, feeling bad for snapping like that, it was none of his business what she did in her spare time but to him that did not look like something that involved a kink, that looked as though someone had smacked her right across the face. "There's no spider," He told her so she'd stop looking so panicked, thankfully it worked as her once tense shoulders relaxed a little but he still looked at her.

"What's what then?" She questioned looking at him with confusion.

"That red mark on your cheek." He said flatly, trying not to get angry and he didn't know why he felt like he was going to. He solely put it down to the thought of anyone hurting someone as sweet as her was gut wrenching, nobody deserved to to get hit no matter the circumstances, the only time he'd find it excusable would be if it was in self-defence.

Rapidly, she darted her eyes away from his feeling a pit form in her stomach. What on earth would she say? What could she say? Her painted fingernails dug into the cuffs of her hoodie as she felt an awful feeling wash over her, if there was one person she hated it was her dad but she didn't hate him at the same time because she knew she deserved what he did to her, she found it hard to hate, it was a strong word.

"That?" She said "It's just a burn, I was trying to curl my hair and the tong was too close to my face," She told him, lying. She couldn't exactly say her father tried his best to hurt her in every way possible before he kicked her out of her own home, could she?

Harrison just narrowed his eyes at her and then trailed his eyes down to her hands that were tugging the ends of the hoodie until his eyes also landed on the small bit of skin that was now exposed near her neck because of how hard she was pulling her sleeves. He saw more red marks that looked like scratches "Are those burns too?" He quizzed pointing at the spot on her neck, to which Oak just re-adjusted her hoodie so that they were hidden.

He didn't want to pressure her into talking about something she didn't want to with someone she barely knew but he'd noticed the signs of someone who was being abused and he hated that thought. He knew the signs because one of his friends, Zuri, had gone through it with his dad and he was acting the exact same way Oak was right now. He also knew so much about it because his character, Cameron, was abused by his father and he got to learn a lot about it and out of his own freewill he'd gone to work alongside a charity in New York called Joyful Heart Foundation that helped people who had been abused and here in the UK he worked with National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV).

It shattered him seeing all of those people who had such bad things happen to them when they didn't deserve it, the people that did it did it simply because they could and that was fucking awful. There were men and women of all ages trapped in a shell because some idiot took everything away from them and now he was sat face to face with someone who he assumed was in that boat and it was breaking him.